Tonight’s the big Titan versus Cavernario national welterweight title match. Cavernario’s getting this shot because of En Busca de un Idolo, but the two have feuded the last week building up to this match They’re getting the main event slot and should have as much time and freedom to do whatever they want, and it should make for a pretty great match. The undercard includes Sagrado and Angel de Oro teaming again, after they had issues on Sunday.

Guadalajara has Rush/Casas (in trios) and Sugehit/Blanca (in a lightning match) as a preview for Juicio Final show, which no one in Guadalajara will likely be able to see live.

I did get to listen to the Hijo del Fantasma podcast and took notes. So many notes. Too many notes. The interview was from a month ago – between the Puebla and Queretaro shows – but most everything is still current. Some of it was covered in Spanish in his Tercera Caida interview – like the cold shoulder he got from CMLL when he was trying to tell them why he was leaving. (His impression is CMLL had no idea why he was leaving, but mistakenly blamed him for getting Sombra, Averno and Volador WWE tryouts – Fantasma says he had nothing to with that, only himself got a tryout himself thru Antonio Inoki’s daughter, thought it went great and was very surprised not to get a deal.) There’s a lot of new stuff, or maybe just stuff I missed last time.

Fantasma gives a lot of credit to Konnan for helping mentor him and turn his career around. They were talking a lot before Fantasma decided to jump, and it was Konnan telling Fantasma that he looked fat that was enough to shock Fantasma into changing things. (Texano Jr., who works out at the gym Fantasma owns, worked hard on getting Fantasma to jump as well.) Fantasma says he was depressed by the end of his CMLL run, and very nervous when he had to wrestle multiple matches in a six sided ring for his AAA debut. Fantasma feels he’s in much better shape now – they agree he’s got the best body in AAA at the moment – and Fantasma’s rebuilt his confidence in this past year and feels like he’s wrestling better than ever.

One of the big mysteries to us, far far on the outside, is why Fantasma is so much happier in AAA. Fantasma hasn’t been a big part of the storylines in AAA since jumping – Konnan even notes Fantasma hasn’t gotten an angle, but will get one soon – but he’s clearly having a lot more fun since leaving Arena Mexico. Fantasma’s not directly asked this, but does explain it: Fantasma was really bummed out by being slotted in the segunda and tercera in CMLL and being left off the big shows. He could tell he was no longer a Golden Boy. Fantasma might have not been given an angle in AAA yet, but he’s always used in one of the top matches. Fantasma says he dressed by himself in CMLL and no one really talked to each other much before or after the matches. Everyone in AAA hangs out together, cracking jokes on each other and helping each other improve. Both Konnan and Fantasma rave about Hard Rock Hotel experience, noting it’s basically a paid vacation. Konnan, talking about the free stuff the luchadors get: “Free hotel rooms, free food, they gave you a fruit basket and wine – that’s why Toscano won’t be going back [both guys laugh].”

Fantamsa mentions he felt really loyal to CMLL since they gave him his first real start, but never was as anti-AAA as other people because he did work there for a few months (the ’05-’06 middleweight tournament) and Antonio Pena gave him some good advice. His father later told Fantasma that he should’ve made the jump a couple years earlier, but his mom was concerned Fantasma would burn a bridge with Arena Mexico and not fit in with the soap opera/garbage wrestling rep AAA had. Fantasma started watching AAA for about a year before jumping and it convinced him AAA wasn’t really a circus, but a place a lot more focused on details in matches and outside the ring than CMLL.

Hijo del Fantasma tells the great story about how his father ended up with the character. He wanted to be “Top Secret”, had the gear made and got booked in Arena Mexico under that name, but he didn’t have his license yet. He went to the lucha commission office to get it, but the commission rejected the name because they didn’t want anyone using English words as their name. Someone there was reading the paper, pointed at The Phantom comic strip, told not-Top Secret he looked like the lead character, and said he should use that name instead. Not-Top-Secret was willing to accept whatever just so he could get licensed and not lose his booking, and so that’s how he became El Fantasma for the next 30+ years. (This is the most lucha libre commission story ever.) Decades later, not-yet-Hijo-del-Fantasma was offered a (unpaid) booking at a small show. He still had no gimmick at this point, so Fantasma went back to his parents house, took his father’s old unused gear, and became Top Secret for the next couple of years.

Fantasma says he’d like to work with Cibernetico and La Parka. Konnan tries to steer him towards Fenix, saying they have great chemistry (Fantasma [joking]: “Yea, we beat the shit out of each other, that kind of chemistry”) and Fantasma agrees that he has good matches with the ‘Strong Style Division’, but he wants to be a top guy and so he’s got to go against top guys. Cibernetico and Fantamsa might have some interesting matches.

There’s a digression about Loco Max, who visited at the last AAA taping in Puebla. He later wrote Konnan an email about how he had CMLL blinders on all along and finally took them off to see how great AAA is. This sounds like a guy sucking up to get a job, but Konnan reacts like it was totally sincere. It probably explains how Loco Max losing his hair in Xalapa on an AAA spot show happened.

There’s a lot more but I don’t want to steal the entire podcast. Fantasma talks about Myzteziz’s struggles in WWE and how he’s done since returning to AAA (better than expected, a pleasant surprise to Konnan) and compare him to Alberto Del Rio. There’s brief stories about trying out for CMLL and trying out for WWE, which are different experiences but not totally so. There’s name association near the end, where Fantasma names Porky as one of the top five guys he’s worked with. Reactions come so easy to him that you’ve got to learn to work harder to keep up. Konnan disappears to take a phone call from Oscar (the Grouch? Probably not the Grouch) for a while, and I thought MSL did a nice job asking good questions to keep the podcast going despite not knowing as much about Fantasma. Hijo del Fantasma comes across as smart, loyal and motivated. He really looks up to Konnan and really likes being part of AAA and where they’re headed.

Court Bauer on his most recent podcast (around 20:20): “AAA has a project – a lot of question marks about that project right now more than ever, for a variety of reasons.” This was only a tangent on a larger discussion about TNA so there’s no real explaination of what’s behind the question mark.

Random major IWRG show? Random major IWRG show. All of these feuds have been going on for a while, but there was no indication they were all resolving on the same show (and maybe it’s not such a great idea given how little has been happening on the Wednesday shows, but whatever.) Oficials and Traumas should be an insane brawl because everyone involved may be insane at the right moments.

Mixtico lost his hair here last year (the trios match where no one know who’s hair was on the line until after the match) and Alan Extreme lost his mask last year, so both are looking for a win in this sort of match.

Imposible and Azteca were feuding with each other, then stopped as soon as the trios title program began. They may be restarting again soon.

Steve Pain says he’s done in AAA. This is abrupt and strange, but he did allude to some changes in his personal life on Twitter and he could be making the tough but mature choice to stay closer to home for the time being. Pain was a really nice surprise addition to AAA and will be missed.

Hijo del Pirata Morgan, who’s about to have parental issues of his own, receiving a new Anarquia t-shirt is the easiest way to patch that hole, though AAA’s now down 2 of the original 3 members of that group. The easiest way to replace Pain in his TripleMania match is just to stick Super Fly in Pain’s spot, but it always seemed like Super Fly was getting added some other way. Pain’s also on the taping prior to TripleMania, but odds remain low that AAA will announce a replacement.

Today’s the Tigre Rojo Jr. versus Blue Center mask versus mask match in Arena Puebla. The feud’s kind of snuck up on everyone and I’m not sure how big a deal it’ll turn out to be. Blue Center was originally feuding with Asturiano months ago. It turned to be a three way feud with Espiritu Maligno losing his hair instead, but it was a pretty clear signal veteran Blue Center would be risking his mask against a young Puebla luchador relatively soon. Those matches in Puebla tend to go one way, but I’m well behind on watching Puebla so I have no idea if that’s good or not. Tigre Rojo Jr. seemed promising the few times I’ve seen him.

I’ve heard the MLW Radio interview with Hijo del Fantasma was very good. I haven’t gotten to hear it yet – I’m waiting for a time where I can listen to it and take an excruciating amount of notes, hopefully in the next day or so. You shouldn’t wait for me to write about it, it’s worth checking out now.

They have one more taping which will air the day before TripleMania, but this is basically it. This is a strange one, because they didn’t move anything forward for the TripleMania card at all – no mention of a cage match in the recap, no plans for the guys who have no matches right now. I assume they’ve taped (or will be taping) plenty of vignettes where those things are announced, but didn’t want to do it in front of the live crowd or didn’t trust to do it that way. It’s different than what they’ve done in the past and even during the lead up to this show (where Psycho/Texano, Taya/Faby and the cruiserweight match were explicitly made in front of the crowd.) I understand AAA is trying to be a TV show and figures most of their audience is finding out what happens by watching the TV show so it’s only what’s on there that matters, but since they’re likely going to announce the remaining matches in front of a limited audience in a couple days in hopes of reaching their audience, why not reach the part of their audience that’s already in front of them?

The Puerto Ricians being brought in to lose a tag title match on night one is also pretty inexplicable. (It reads as if it was single elimination, so AAA could’ve just protected them and beaten Eterno.) Why bother flying them in? Or did they change their minds halfway thru, and that’s why the vignettes were primarily on YouTube? It’s also possibly they’ll just keep showing up anyway, because AAA is weird.

As expected, Fenix is working TV despite missing spots shows. I haven’t seen this week’s TV yet, but it sounded like he looked immobile in Nayarit. Hopefully the three weeks off have done him some good.

Next taping is 08/06 in Teziultan, but the next AAA event should be the announcement of the TripleMania card sometime this week. Maybe. I don’t really know.

I guess Sagrado’s all black outfit was a clue. If the tecnicos get Dragon Rojo and the rudos get Sagrado, who won the trade? (Probably no one who likes to see people in their best roles, but I guess we can wait and see on Sagrado.) The best joke I saw on Twitter was rudo Sagrado becoming an atheist, but I like to imagine that programming people in CMLL are so upset with Myzteziz that they’re making his predecessor his evil parody.

There seems to be a short term end game for Dragon Rojo turning – they tried Rey Escorpion/Maximo, it wasn’t clicking, they still want to do something with Escorpion, voila – but I’m not as convinced about Sagrado going anywhere. Mostly because it’s Sagrado and it hasn’t gone anywhere in five years with him, which might also be the reason enough to give him a new start on the rudo side but it only works if there’s more to it than him turning. Also, somewhat concerned there’s another middle/upper level feud kickstarted prior to September. They’re only a couple more away from being able to fill up a cage. Can’t rule anything out.

The Silueta/Zeuxis situation is a bit amusing. REINA, weeks ago, announced that their August shows would have a title match on every show. Silueta’s on those shows, Zeuxis is not, so the title match outcome could not be more obvious if a Sk8er Boi was involved. Yet, it must’ve not been obvious to the CMLL people in charge of scheduling these things. This lightning match was belatedly added to the card during the week so they could squeeze in the title match before Silueta left. The left hand and right hand need to hold meetings or at least check their email.

(The other important REINA angle you need to know is Negro Casas taught Syuri the secrets of the casita. I only know this because a Twitter bot keeps on repeating it, but I like the idea of Negro revealing hidden info about the cradle half the roster uses.)

The AAA show tonight announced nothing about TripleMania matches to the live crowd, so it’s still possible CMLL might announce The Inevitable Oro Jr. Versus Metalico Mask Versus Mask Counter Programming Extravaganza (official name) for 08/17 before AAA gets around to announcing Mytzeziz’s match on TripleMania. I’m crossing my fingers.

CMLL video promo for Friday includes Negro Casas very obviously reading from cue cards. There’s a jump cut and he’s clearly pointing at the women’s names on the other side of the camera. The amazing thing is it proves they do a second take on those.

Also, why didn’t they have the Guadalajara girl win the title back in Guadalajara (where she lost it last time?) This is shocking news, I know, but I believe no one’s paying attention to details in this lucha libre promotion. This is a fresh insight.

This should be a pretty good card. The fifth match doesn’t have much hope, but wouldn’t have much hope if Angel de Oro & Sagrado weren’t going to fight anyway. This is the best way to use Pierroth, if you have to use him. (You don’t have to use him.)

Sombra and Shocker complete the hat track, doing the same match in Puebla, Mexico and Guadalajara. And quite likely the literal same match. Plans subject to change – the Twitter recapper sure seems to have though the upcoming Shocker match was with Valiente, not Sombra.

I was looking at 1949/1950 Guadalajara lineups last week – because I’m strange and I found them and I keep forgetting I really should be doing some Better Know A Luchador profiles prior to Juicio Final but does anyone really want a Seductora profile (no, you’re lying) – and the top 2/3rds of this card kind of reminds me of those. The style there was to run 8 person shows. They’d just have four singles matches. Sometimes they ran a (new for then) tag team match, but they’d still just have 8 people booked and just one less match. Old luchador frequently complain about (everything but specifically) people not being trained enough before they’re wrestling on shows. I don’t always agree, but it definitely figures to reason that the 15th best person on a 15 man show is probably significantly better than 30th best person on a 30 man show and that person is a whole lot better than 60th best on a 60 man (DTU) show. If people ran smaller shows, like Guadalajara does on Sundays, then maybe they’d be better shows? It doesn’t work out perfectly, Guadalajara seems to be running lesser populated shows on Sunday because the seats are also lesser populated and there are other reasons they’re choosing those people on the show besides them being the best, but maybe it would help if it was just a little tougher to get booked onto shows? (And here, the 100 people in the AAA, CMLL and IWRG schools dying to get booked might argue it’s plenty tough enough already.)

If Sombra, Mascara and Rush put Ingobernable on a t-shirt, will CMLL finally be forced to start using that name? I’m just happy Mascara finally got a black mask.

A ludicrous amount of DQs and straight fall matches. There’s got to be a balance of trying to build things up for next week and making sure people get a decent show this week. There’s zero reason to do a DQ with Delta/Puma when they’re doing so many other ones.

Mil Mascaras talked to the crowd for a bit after receiving his award. This was a peculiar show promoted by the CMLL owned by building but not by CMLL itself. Every match was one fall; maybe it’d be that way all the time if they had their choice.

AAA’s put up the vignettes from today’s TV show. Notable ones include Blue Demon Jr. making his first TV appearance in months by challenging Jeff Jarrett and Chessman also getting involved. Add to the TripleMania cage match.

We really should know everyone in the cage by tomorrow night. AAA tapes TV in Ecatepec, their first taping in three weeks. (Three weeks between tapings in July is too long – maybe not for AAA, but definitely for a person who writes daily blog on lucha libre.) AAA’s got a taping before TripleMania left in Teziultan, and maybe even another one after which hasn’t been announced yet, but tonight’s the night any big matches left for TripleMania should be made. The full lineup is expected to be out next week, they might as well run the angles for the matches before hand. Myzteziz’s match for TripleMania, the official announcement for the cage match, the plans for Pentagon/Suicide (if it’s still happening on this show) and the plans for Angelico & Jack Evans (probably against the debut Carlios & Tommy Diablo) are the four big things which have to be sorted out tomorrow.

Porra Fresa posts an article about Porra Fresa. Even though they’re making noise and part of the show every week, they don’t get any discount on their tickets. I can’t decide if organized groups at US wrestling shows would be great, or just the worst thing ever. It depends on the people.

Marcela and Seductora talk about their hair match. The build to this thing, with the four women scarcely in the same match at the same time, has been very strange. They’ve focused more on Blanca versus Sugehit, which is a good grudge match and Blanca versus Marcela, which is just a good match. They really haven’t done anything to disguise Seductora being the obvious loser and she’s needed a lot of help if she was going to be in this match.

Myzteziz took his first direct loss in AAA on a random spot show in Oaxaca. They haven’t been pushing him as undefeated and spot shows results are never mentioned, but this one is really never going to be mentioned.

Not listed as FILL but obviously is – and includes a couple guys I thought might have left. (Which doesn’t really explain why they’re not on the main shows.) I didn’t know Yakzua was training for AULL but he’s on all of their shows so it makes sense.

I haven’t look thru Ticketmaster yet, but was told tickets had been moving slower than expected for Juicio Final. That would seem to explain why Sombra versus Voldaor, for the 9th time in Arena Mexico in the last two years, has been added. Only I’m not sure it actually helps a lot. They’ve definitely reached diminishing returns in the matches themselves and I’m a bit dreading this match after Volador’s match with Dragon Rojo – they need to change things up but won’t. It also seems like it’s played out as a drawing card, drawing less the last few times, though being added as a second or third attraction here means it’s more just added to the depth of the card.

This is more concerning for those of us who will only see this event on TV. CMLL already had three matches they’d like to squeeze on TV. Besides the apuestas, the semimain should have one apuesta match set (but will possibly have two and anger everyone in the crowd) and so it should turn up on TV in some form. Now they have four, they’ll be tempted to edit in three, and all the matches are going to pay the price. Some editor is going to have a rough time.